1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to management of information useful in diagnosing and repairing various objects, and more particularly to improved user interfaces for viewing and managing information related to vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the automotive repair industry, access to information regarding particular specifications of automobiles may be important, and sometimes essential, for properly diagnosing a symptom of an automobile and determining an appropriate repair procedure. Currently, many automobile manufacturers publish specification manuals that include detailed information regarding one or more automobiles. These manuals typically include a table of contents, multiple chapters directed to various portions of the automobiles, and an index. A technician at an automobile repair shop may use these specification manuals extensively in identifying symptoms and performing repair procedures.
In the recent past, many of the automobile specification manuals have been made available in an electronic format, such as in Adobe pdf format, so that users may store the manuals on a computer and view portions of the manual on a display device, as necessary. However, searching of these electronic specification manuals is generally limited, or, in some cases, not possible at all. Thus, the user typically must view the index or table of content portion of a manual on a display device in order to determine which pages of the electronic specification manual contain the desired information. Systems and methods for allowing the information in electronic specification manuals to be more easily and comprehensibly available to a user are desired.
Information that may be relevant to a particular diagnostic or repair procedure may be found in multiple locations within a specification manual. Thus, locating all of the information that may be relevant to a given procedure (including both diagnostic and repair procedures) is often complex and time consuming. Similarly, information that may be relevant to a particular system, or subsystem, of an automobile may be found in multiple locations within a specification manual, in multiple specification manuals, or in other reference materials, including materials that are available on the Internet. Accordingly, improved systems and methods for organizing the information contained in these various reference materials and providing the information to a user, such as via a graphical user interface (GUI), are desired.
A typical automobile repair shop may, for example, use a specification manual for a certain make and model of automobile in order to diagnose symptoms of a subject automobile. During the diagnosis, certain reference information, such as the location of particular electrical components, the manufacturer's suggested torque settings, or instructions for using a particular tool referred to in the diagnosis procedure, may not be located on the same page as the diagnosis procedure. In fact, the reference information may be in another book or another section of the specification manual, for example. In either case, additional effort and time is required for the technician to locate the desired reference information. Accordingly, improved systems and methods for displaying related information, such as in a GUI on a display device, are desired. In addition, improved systems and methods for updating a GUI with information obtained from various sources according to the current task being performed by the technician are desired.